DRAMATIC STORY

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 January 1938, Page 14

DRAMATIC STORY

ARTIST AND MODEL There has been a portrait of Dorette Woodward by Mr. Gerald Brockhurst, the new R.A.. in each Royal Academy for the past six years. They have sold for between £lOOO and £l5OO each. In addition, Mr. Brockhurst has done hundreds of drawings and etchings of Dorette. Dorette Woodward’s only definite ambition is to have enough money to commission Mr. Brockhurst to paint her portrait.

She tried to explain why to a “Sunday Express” representative, and in explaining told a story of the relationship between two minds that had the power of drama. “You see. I scarcely know what I am really like,” she said. “For seven years I have been Mr. Brockhurst’s model. I met him when I was 17 through my father commissioning him to do a drawing of me. My face appealed to him and he asked me if I would be a model for him. 1 was glad to. I was keen on drawing and 1 used to bring my drawings and work in the studio, and he helped me. Gradually the studio became my life.

“We talked and talked and talked. Mr. Brockhurst has a brilliant intellect and talks wonderfully. I listened, and, recognising the brilliance, accepted all his views and ideas and opinions. They became mine. 1 ceased to have any of my own. My face he changed to suit the picture he was working on. Apparently I have a very plastic face. It can take on all kinds of expressions. 1 am not beautiful. In some of my depressed moods I look ugly. He told me how to do my hair, what make-up to use. .1 had rather bushy, untidy eyebrows. I plucked them out, and then he drew them on, one by one, to make the line he wanted. Most of the bestknown models have distinct personalities which artists like to portray. “1 don’t think I have a personality of my own, or if I have I don’t know what it is. I am simply material that Mr. Brockhurst has moulded and remoulded, and moulded again into what he wanted for his drawing. t NEW FACE “It is not just a matter of changing a face that happens to be plastic. Face indicates character, and if one’s face is changed one’s natuure and emotions seem to change with it. Occasionally we go to first nights and sometimes I have said, ‘I am fed up with my face. I Can you make me a new one for tonight?’ He has done, and 1 have felt a totally different person. “Until recently—when 1 began to realise what was happening to me-—I had very few friends and seldom went out to dinners or parties. I did not want to. Other people seemed insipid or stupid compared with Mr. Brockhurst. I do all sorts of work for Mr. Brockhurst besides sitting for him, anything tlni.t will save him from being distracted' from his work.

“I am keeping a journal in which I write down everything interesting that happens, about myself, about the sitters who come to the studio, but particularly about Mr. Brockhurst. He is the central character. I record the things he does and the particularly interesting or clever things he says. The journal is simply for myself. Until recently I was quite content with my life. Then I saw what was happening, that 1 had no mind or mood of my own. Mentally, I was completely dependent. I was frightened. It seemed almost sinister in some aspects. I began to wonder about the future. I had few friends or interests outside the studio. I had never fallen in love. So I reared up and said, ‘Hey. I’m a person.’

“Mr. Brockhurst was not pleased. But I persisted. We fought, hard, but I stood my ground, and eventually Mr. Brockhurst agreed with me. “I began to go about more and meet more people. I started thinking for myself and sometimes reaching opinions different from Mr. Brockhurst’s. I began to make small criticisms of his work.

“At first he was furious, but now he accepts them and even asks for them. I have been learning tap dancing for a long time. Now if a chance comes for me to dance on the stage or in cabaret I think I shall take it. I don’t think I would be a success in films because I photograph badly. “I hope to make a life for myself now, but I hope it will leave me time to sit for Mr. Brockhurst.” The strange thing is that the girl who was suffering from introspection about her missing personality has a personality that, even though she never moved or spoke, would.be felt by every one in a crowded room, i